Synopsis: : Morgana (or Morgan) Le Fey attempts to possess young Lissa Russell, sister of Jack Russell whose alter ego is the lycanthropic Werewolf by Night. The reason for this is that Morgana has been eternally imprisoned in Gorre Castle by Merlin the Magician and will perish should she ever attempt to escape. Over the years, Morgana has sought to possess various female descendants of the Darkhold Cult, to whom Morgana herself belongs, so that she may once again be free to walk the earth with physical flesh once possession is complete. Lissa Russell happens to be one such person, and has been experiencing strange behaviour and nightmares in which she believes herself to be the modern incarnation of Morgana Le Fey.
Tony Stark encounters Jack and Lissa Russell at a Renaissance Faire in California. Lissa has an uncannily ability to discern that Tony is Iron Man as a result of Shellhead's last encounter with Morgana in IM #150. Naturally, when Morgana begins to weave her spell, Tony becomes involved as both he and an increasingly savage Werewolf attempt to rescue Lissa from the clutches of the evil sorceress before it is too late.
Observations:
Patronising lines:
Sadism:
Art Notes:
IM #209 has always struck me as bearing a striking similarity to old Hammer Horror movies such as "Lust For A Vampire", to which my version of IM #209 owes a large influence. In "Lust", Mircalla, a beautiful blonde Victorian female student (played by the gorgeous Yutte Stensgaard) at a finishing school for girls turns out to be the modern incarnation of Carmilla, a female vampire from centuries before (notice the anagram in her name). It's easy to draw parallels between the comely, blonde Lissa Russell and Mircalla in "Lust".
Similarly, Morgana Le Fey has more than a passing resemblance to Hammer scream queens such as Julie Strain, often specialising in vampires herself (in particular, the comic-book heroine, Vampirella) - hence Strain's image has been used for Morgana in this picture.
In "Lust", the male hero of the movie encounters Mircalla near an eerie, surreal forest and falls under her spell. While such an encounter does not actually take place in IM #209, I chose to set the picture in a moonlit, gothic wood to echo the scene from "Lust". Morg ana here is both evil sorceress and beautiful temptress at once, beckoning Iron Man to a gruesome death like a ghostly lover.
On the ground, unconscious at the foot of Morgana, lies the Werewolf, shown here in his semi-transformed state before he has become fully savage. He does not stay this way for very long in the actual story.
Although Iron Man #209 is by no means a classic issue, the story certainly has the potential for an interesting picture full of fantastical, cinematic elements.
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